Our Team

Get Involved with London City!

Linden Lab Official: Community Gateway

"London City is committed to helping new users enjoy the best initial experience of Second Life".

We recruit from those who visit London City and get involved with its community.  It works best for all concerned, when a familiar face joins the Support Team. 

You do not need to be an expert!  Friendliness is much more important to new residents joining Second Life.  Our team is connected with each other via a chat-ap, so they can quickly find out information and resources, when helping residents.

We do not usually recruit groups of friends, as this can cause cliques, which we try to avoid. We will not recruit active members of Bloodlines and other Vampire Roleplay games.

We encourage our existing Support Team to recognize emerging talent. You you might like to reach out to one of our team to register your interest,  or to ask them about what is involved.

London City is an Official Linden Lab: Community Gateway and you should familiarize yourself with this program: see https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/2179-open-the-gate-the-community-gateway-program-that-is/

SUPPORT is first and foremost a HELPING ROLE. This is not an Admin role.

ROLE PROFILE: LONDON SUPPORT    

PAY:  Voluntary.  Whilst the role of Support itself is unpaid, all members of the team may choose to host at paid events in London City, such as bars and clubs by hosting or DJing, or being part of the London City Players Band (guaranteed minimum of 300L per 1 hour show).  Those putting in longer hours to the support also qualify for  a50% discount on Residential land parcels in the estate.

AGE:  You need to be 60+ days old.

HOURS: Flexible.  (8 hours a week for 'rental subsidy')

PROSPECTS:   Every member of this team begins in Support.  Our region managers, club hosts, club managers, admins, performers etc, all began as Support staff.   We do not guarantee that by joining Support,  you will automatically go on to other duties, but the Support role is the central reservoir that leads to other projects and jobs.

ROLE:  The role of 'Support' is to be a trusted source of information and to help new residents learn fundamental skills.  You must be friendly, approachable and stable.

This may include how to use their inventory, purchase new items from the freebie shop,  block users, unpack and rez, whilst also making residents aware of the facilities within London City.

We do not spoon-feed new residents.  We do not pass inventory or landmarks.  We teach users how to use 'SL Search', whilst remaining mindful that the merchants of London City pay for these regions so where possible, we will usually encourage local shopping  if an item is readily available within the estate.

You will need to develop intuition to distinguish "the wood from the trees", and to concentrate on the new users who genuinely need help, because sometimes you are surrounded by older avatars, 'noob chasers' and new user Alts.  

We ask that altercations be addressed in IM where possible.  This can give the impression to the bar-fly's that nothing is being done, because they are not witnessing any public chat, but that is why you are Support and they are not.  We try not to do the laundry in public.

However, unless you are dealing with a personal issue, we expect our Support agents to help in Local Chat instead of IM whenever practically possible.  This serves two purposes.  Firstly it helps other new users who are very likely to be experiencing the same problem or issues, and secondly it gives others an opportunity to witness the quality and correctness of the assistance being given.

You are an ambassador for London City.  We seek to recruit those with a genuine drive to help, not  those who want to police the regions. This is a support, not a governance role.

ENCOURAGE: Exploration of London City.  We have many sights to see, areas to explore and stores to shop in.   Never send new residents straight to the market place.  It is important that they learn how to use the search function in-world.  Whilst Market Place is a great resource, it is also the primary reason why so few regions for shopping exist in Second Life any more.   A good team member will know the products on sale and be able to recommend stores to people.   You will need to know the estate yourself, in order to recommend activities here.  So please set aside some time yourself and explore!

RETENTION:  If you are showing a new resident how to use search, please ensure they have first created a landmark for London City, so they can return.  Please make them aware of themed events, club times and concerts, so they know when to expect interaction with other users in a party environment.  The London City blog is the best place to find such information.

  

  

FUN and INFORMATIVE ATMOSPHERE 

We strive to make London City, the best initial experience for all new users.

We hope our Support Team will offer friendly interaction during this all important first visit to Second Life.  Friendliness is much more important than any other quality!   Besides, if you don't know how to do something yourself, you can ask other members of our team for assistance via our private help portal.

For this role, you need to be immensely patient, fun, friendly, spontaneous, level-headed, and to be able to juggle these skills and competencies to impart vital information.

If you are someone who enjoys helping others and you possess a sense of humour, which allows you to smile at irony and not be wound up by the classroom clown, then this is the role for you!

About London Support

As Support you will be friendly and approachable at all times.  If you are not feeling friendly or you have had a stressful day, please do not Support for that day.

You will assist others to take the first steps in Second Life and to get the most out of the London City regions.

Although you will advise others about Terms of Service (TOS), Community Standards (CS) and the London City covenant, you are not here as an enforcement officer.

What is a Support Agent?

You are usually one of the first people a new resident will meet.  It is essential that you make a good impression.

You will be in control of the situation, you should lead the new resident, they don't lead you. If a conversation starts to go down the wrong path,  you have to bring it back on track.

Usually, most unpleasant situations can be dealt with by explaining to a resident that they haven't beamed into World of Warcraft and that Second Life is a community of people who make friends, travel, build, buy, sell and act sociably with each other.

New members of Support staff are not given any powers of governance.  As you become experienced in how Support is expected to work, you may be given additional permissions,  but we need to know if you are able to resolve situations on your own, without resorting to nuking piffling annoyances, before any additional abilities are granted.

SUPPORT BAITING

Some mischievous residents will try to annoy you, because they see you as an authority figure.

Here are some things you can use as a first line of defence against people trying to annoy you:

MUTE them.  It is a wonderful tool and you need never hear from them again.

People will bump into you.  Get yourself a lock device or sit on something.  You cannot be pushed when you are sitting down.   Please /NEVER/ use a shield that fries people if they bump into you.  They are considered a weapon.

Someone is trying to bug you for the sake of it, put yourself in Busy mode.

And.. tell the Admin team about the incident, so that they are aware of a potential problem.

SUPPORT FAMILY

New members of support will initially work with an experienced support member.  Don't worry about being left alone and fending for yourself... until you are ready :)

HOW TO ABUSE REPORT

ABUSE REPORTS - COMMONLY CALLED - AR's

Whenever you see anyone violate the Terms Of Service (TOS), or the Community standards (CS or Big Six), or the Welcome Area Guidelines, you should file an abuse report. And so should every resident present.  You should show them how to Abuse Report.

Select the most appropriate category.

If it's an object, use the blue button above the category box, and then left click on the object, if you can. That will include details about the object, it's exact location and the owner.

Fill in the summary as clear and short and simple as you can. Include the offender's name.  Try to be clear:

Joe Public, repeated bad language, shoving and nudity.

Sue Avatar, weapons fire in no-combat zone.

Rather than..

Joe Public - being a idiot

In the details section, put in anything you think is relevant. You can include chat history.

You are expected to know how to file an abuse report.
See here: https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/filing-an-abuse-report-r25/

>>  Teach others to MUTE, TURN OFF PARTICLES AND HOW TO ABUSE REPORT.

COMMON SENSE CLAUSE

Unless you have Admin powers yourself, you will report incidents in our internal channels, so that Admin can monitor it.  Griefing should never be just ignored!

ABUSE OF POWER

Our team must be accountable for their actions.

We encourage visitors to file a support ticket (via this blog) with us when they believe they have witnessed a deliberate abuse of power:

THAT'S IT!

Well that just about covers it!  We hope to hear from you soon!.

8< ------  APPLICATION  8< ------

 You may clip out this section out and return it to Torric Rodas.  Please name the notecard Support Application and add your name

Do not leave any questions blank. Mark as Not Applicable, if this is the case.

(1)  SL Account Name:

(please ensure this is your user name not your display name)

(2)  SL Age in days:

(3)  Country of Residence:

(4)  Languages you speak:

(5)  Are you able to be here to help on a regular basis?

(6)  Day(s) of week you are most likely to be available:

(7)  Hours (please use SLT, not local times) that you are usually online:         FROM:        TO:

(8) For how long have you been visiting London City?  And bearing in mind we recruit "familiar faces", would you consider yourself to be known by our visitors and staff? :       

(9)  This is your chance to say why you are suited for this role and why do you want to be London City  Support staff:

(10) Disclosure:  If you work at clubs, info hubs, other regions etc, this does not preclude you from volunteering at London City.  Please tell us about the other places or potential conflicts of interest that we should know about?

(11) Are you willing to install Discord on your computer AND keep up to date with staff channels?

(12) Have you read and understood the London City Covenant, Terms of Service, Community Standards and how to file an Abuse report?

(13) If you have a preference to initially work with a specific experienced team member, please say who that person is:

(14) Initially, I will commit to a 30 days trial period, where either party can review my suitability.
I am aware that this voluntary role can be quite intensive, and although it is not paid, I will treat the job with respect and do my best to help new residents in accordance with the policies in place in London City.   Do you agree?  _____

Please sign this with your account (legacy) name and date it here:


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Thanks to Rails Bailey for contributions to this article.

This forms part of the creative works and intellectual property of London City Estate. You may not copy, distribute, modify, adapt or translate any content of this document. It is not available under the Creative Commons or any other license. 

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